InfoQ Homepage Firefox Content on InfoQ
-
Firefox Introduces Web Authentication API
With the Firefox 60 release on May 9, Firefox became the first major browser to support the Web Authentication API. This API enables users to avoid text-based passwords for websites and instead uses a local device with a biometric check or private PIN to generate a secure cryptographic identifier. Support for the API is in development for Chrome and Edge, and under consideration for Safari.
-
Firefox Releases Facebook Container Extension
Firefox has released an extension that it claims will stop the company snooping on users’ non-Facebook web traffic. The Facebook Container extension isolates users' identities to a separate container tab, which makes it harder for Facebook to track other web activity.
-
With Firefox Version 58, WebAssembly Gets 10X Faster
With Firefox 58, Mozilla is shipping a 2-tiered compilation system for WebAssembly that they claim allows them to parse and compile WASM code at 30-60 MB/s, or as fast as it comes in over the wire. Benchmarks indicate around a 10X speedup from previous versions of Firefox, and over 10X faster than Chrome.
-
W3C Releases HTML 5.2 As Official Recommendation
The W3C released the HTML 5.2 update to the HTML specification as an official recommendation on December 14, 2017. This update adds new features like the dialog element, obsoletes old ones like the HTML plugins system, and integrates work from other W3C committees such as support for the Payments Request API and the Presentation API.
-
Firefox Quantum Commits to Cross-Browser Extension Architecture
With the Firefox 57 “Quantum” release, Firefox now only supports extensions based on the WebExtensions API, joining Chrome and Edge in supporting extension development with pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript based on a cross-browser shared extension architecture.
-
WebAssembly Now Supported across All Browsers
With releases on September 19 for Safari and October 31 for Edge, Apple and Microsoft join Google and Mozilla in providing support for WebAssembly in production browsers. All four companies’ browsers can now run code compiled to the wasm binary format.
-
Browser Vendors Start Shipping WebAssembly by Default
The browser vendors working on WebAssembly have reached a "consensus" on an initial implementation set, allowing browsers to ship it on by default. While this is an important milestone, the initial implementation won't immediately result in significant uptake by developers as important features such as DOM integration and garbage collection are not yet part of the spec.
-
Oracle Reminds Java Developers That Soon They Won’t Have a Browser to Run Applets
Oracle has recently published a new post in the series “Moving to a Plugin-Free Web,” advising developers to find replacement solutions if they still have Java applets running in production. Firefox is going to stop supporting them soon.
-
Chrome and Firefox Start Warning of Insecure Sites
Starting with Chrome 56 and Firefox 51, browsers will start warning users if they browse a non-HTTPS site that contains a password or credit card input field.
-
Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla Urge Site Operators to Replace SHA–1 Certificates
Following their SHA–1 deprecation plans announced last year, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla detailed recently their timelines to remove support for SHA–1 certificates from their flagship browsers. Researchers at security firm Venafi found however, that 35% of analyzed websites are still using SHA–1 certificates.
-
Firefox Focus, a Private Web Browser for iOS
Firefox Focus is a new web browser for iOS that blocks many ad and content trackers by default. Along with its minimal, single tab UI, the browser offers privacy and speed.
-
Firefox 50 Extends Benefits of Electrolysis
Mozilla has released Firefox 50. The latest update increases the benefits to users from multiple content processes, and fixes a dozen high impact security vulnerabilities. Among the improvements in Firefox's latest release is further access to Electrolysis, Mozilla's functionality for rendering and executing web-related content in background processes.
-
Blisk, A New Browser for Developers
Blisk is a Chromium-based browser that brings together the performance of Chrome and the developer support found in Firefox Developer Edition.
-
Angular 1.X Usage Banned in Firefox Extensions
A developer found out the hard way that they had built their Firefox browser extension on banned technology. Angular 1.X has been banned for use in Firefox extensions as long as a security vulnerability exists in the way Angular interacts with the extension and the displayed web page.
-
Mozilla Discontinue Support for Firefox Hello [Interview]
Mozilla has discontinued and removed Firefox Hello from its flagship browser. InfoQ talked to Nick Nguyen, VP of Firefox, about the decision to stop supporting the WebRTC experiment.